Despite experiencing an 11 percent sales increase in 2013 and an 8 percent bump in units, the fast-casual restaurant segment shows no signs of slowing down, according to Technomic.

While bakery cafés are still doing well overall, unit expansion is now more likely to happen in burger, Mexican, other sandwich and specialty concepts, diversifying the fast‐casual landscape.

“Watch for even more menu and concept diversity in this sector,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic. “Also look for more quick-service restaurants and full-service restaurants to realign their formats and develop new fast-casual concepts to compete more aggressively.”